Interview: Duane Denison - Jazz-Punk's "Evil Andy Summers"

Last Halloween weekend
marked only the second time
in nearly a decade that alt-rock
supergroup Tomahawk—
vocalist Mike Patton (Faith
No More, Mr. Bungle),
guitarist Duane Denison
(the Jesus Lizard), bassist
Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle),
and drummer John Stanier
(Helmet)—had played a live
show together. It was at the
annual Voodoo Music + Arts
Experience festival in New
Orleans, and it was in support
of the band’s new January
2013 album, Oddfellows.

If you’re unfamiliar with
Tomahawk, the Jesus Lizard, and
Denison’s playing with Hank III,
Firewater, Silver Jews, and the
Legendary Shack Shakers, the
main thing you need to know is
that he eschews the blues-based
mannerisms typical of so much
rock music these days. Some
of Denison’s fanciest playing
is muted—like an evil Andy
Summers—and his rhythms
and leads intertwine in unique
ways that combine his scholarly
knowledge of classical guitar
with touches of flamenco and
reggae to form a minimalist style
many have called “jazz punk.”

Denison sketched out each
of Tomahawk’s three albums
at home on guitar and drum
machine before emailing MP3s
to his long-distance bandmates.
Although he’s always been a
tasteful player, Denison has
become even more enamored of
space since he began writing for
Patton’s wild-yet-golden pipes.

“You don’t have to hit people
over the head,” he says on
Tomahawk’s tour bus before the
Voodoo show. “It’s nice to kind
of step back and let the vocals
take over. If you have a guitar
sound like mine that tends to
be fairly bright and shrill, ear
fatigue sets in pretty quick, and
unless you’re a super fan of that
kind of thing, you’re gonna tune
out after a while.”

Like other musicians incubated
in the ’90s Chicago scene
that revolved around Touch
and Go Records and producer
Steve Albini, Denison is also
known for his interesting gear.
Throughout the Jesus Lizard’s
heyday, he played aluminum-necked
Travis Bean guitars.

“Kramer also made a primitive
aluminum-neck guitar,” he
says. “It had fake wood grain
crammed in around it and a
Phil Petillo [Petillo Precision
Fret] fretboard that were just terrible.
But even the Travis Beans
… I was always fighting them.”

At some point, the “fighting”
became tiresome, and
Denison was thrilled when
Kevin Burkett of Electrical
Guitar Company offered to create
a custom, all-aluminum guitar
for the Jesus Lizard’s 2009
reunion tour. “Kevin knew
I’d sold my Travis Beans off,”
Denison remembers. “I was in a
new phase of playing and went
to the Gibson ES-135.”

Denison’s EGC Chessie signature
model is a neck-through
design with hollowed-out
cavities around the wings,
where gill-like slits take the
place of standard f-holes.
Whereas the Travis Beans he
was used to playing were neck-heavy,
Denison’s EGC models
are almost tin-can light. “The
newest one is the lightest so
far—about 7 pounds,” he
beams. “We had to put some
ballast in the tail to keep it
balanced.”

Duane Denison’s signature Chessie 6-strings from Electrical Guitar Company: The brushed-aluminum axe at upper left features bolts on the front for fast
maintenance, and it and the white version at lower right feature Gibson Burstbucker pickups, while the P-90-equipped yellow model is for Denison’s work
with the Legendary Shack Shakers.

While most EGCs come
with single-coils, humbuckers,
or P-90s made in house, the
Denison Chessie comes with
Gibson Burstbucker pickups. At
the Voodoo fest, Denison played
a white Chessie for much of
the show, but EGC also made
him a bright yellow Chessie
with black trim and traditional
f-holes. Created specifically for
Denison’s roots rockabilly band,
the Legendary Shack Shakers,
the yellow Chessie uses P-90s to
produce a sound Denison says is
“real toothy—just a great vintage
sound. I usually avoid P-90s
because of the noise and hum.
When I was a kid, if the guitar
was noisy you’d take tinfoil and
shove it into the routing. But
when the P-90s are cased in
aluminum like this, the whole
body is a shield and the P-90s
are awesome—silent.”

Of his unfinished
Oddfellows-era EGC guitar,
Denison says, “It’s a minimalist
rock machine.” To enhance its
mechanistic look, ECG drilled
into the front of the guitar the
bolts that normally line the edge
of its guitars’ backs. Remove
the bolts, and the guitar opens
in one piece for repair. Its bare
aluminum neck boasts the same
width and pitch as a Gibson
ES-135. “I can’t think of another
guitar that has that combination—
the pitch, the feel, plus
the scale length, and all while
keeping the weight down.”

Asked what inspired his EGC
models, Denison says much of
their design is owed to the year
he spent working for Gibson.
“I would do 30 setups a day—
bridge, tailpiece, nut, stringing
it up, setting the pickups, and
adjusting the action.” In the
process, says Denison, “I realized
Les Pauls rarely have intonation
issues. I really came to respect
the pitch of the Gibson necks,
and the Les Paul as a model of
design. So [with my guitar], we
put a pitch of three degrees and
extended the scale length to 25
inches. If you keep it around 25,
you can put heavier strings on
and they don’t feel so heavy. The
Dunlop .011s I’m using now
feel great.”

Tonally, Denison says his
guitars have a little more brightness
and clarity than a Les Paul.
“There’s not as much sustain,” he
says, “but that’s by design—the
quest for sustain is misguided.
I want the notes to fade. I don’t
want them to just howl.”

One might imagine that
an all-aluminum guitar could
sound tinny, but Denison
vouches for his Chessies’ versatility.
“You get all the highs—
but also the lows. It’s pure
sounding. You’re not going to
get a wood tone,” he admits,
“but wood’s overrated. People
fetishistically insist on certain
types of aged wood—and that
does color the sound—but with
rock distortion, I defy you to
A/B it in a studio and tell me
what year the wood was cut and
what side of the hill the trees
grew on and how much rainfall
they had. I think it’s the pickups,
the strings, and the amp
that make your guitar sound.”

Photo by Vincent Forcier

Speaking of which amps
“make” his guitar sound,
Denison discloses that he
recorded Oddfellows with Fender
amps—a recent Super-Sonic
and a ’90s Vibro-King—
although, live, he’s been using a
green-stained, 3-input prototype
head from Emperor Cabinets.
“It’s a very good-sounding
hybrid of a Hiwatt and a Fender
Bassman,” Denison explains.
“One [input] is more UK
sounding, one is more USA
sounding, and one is a blend.
I use the blend input most
often.” He routes the 100-watt,
6L6-powered amp through
two Emperor 2x12 cabinets
varnished to look like chocolate
leather. One cab has Eminence
speakers, and the other has
Electro-Voice EVM12Ls.

Whether or not it has anything
to do with Denison’s new
gear, Tomahawk’s latest album
is a bit more experimental than
past efforts. One example is
“Waratorium,” which ends in
vast, hissing washes of sound. For
the more textured parts on the
album, Denison relied on a TC
Electronic G-Force , which he
augments with Malekko pedals,
a Line 6 looper, and an Ernie
Ball volume pedal.

Despite Denison’s particularity
with his guitars and his use
of semi-complicated outboard
gear, fans of his past work will
be both delighted and unsurprised
to learn that he’s still all
about simplicity. He unwittingly
describes the charm of his own
playing style when he points out
perhaps the least important technical
detail of his EGC Chessie
guitars. “That, right there, is the
‘logo,’” he says, pointing to the
rectangular hole between the
tuning pegs. “The lack of a logo
is sort of refreshing—maybe it’s
kind of nice to be subtle.”

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